Sure, you must read about it. So what is the impact of iPhone on UMPCs? It’s been 10 months since the announcement of the UMPCs and yes its still young. The products we’ve seen so far has not been the ones we were all expecting for the price. With the things you can do with iPhone (though it runs on OS X) it’s not going to affect the UMPCs directly — unless apple comes out with its own ultra portable multi-touch macbook.
For sure this device will have a great impact on Zune, Microsoft Smartphones, Nokia Internet Tablet and similar products. Not to mention the Walkman Phones lineup from Sony Ericsson. Let’s compare the Apple iPhone with Samsung Blackjack and Sony Ericsson W950i (not for the US markets yet)
- Screen size 3.5 inches
- Screen resolution: 320 by 480 at 160 ppi
- Input method: Multi-touch
- Operating system: OS X
- Storage: 4GB or 8GB
- GSM Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)
- Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0
- Camera: 2.0 megapixels
- Battery: Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing * Up to 16 hours Audio playback
- Dimensions: 4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm
- Weight: 4.8 ounces / 135 grams
Though Samsung blackjack is not a music player, it does support up to 2Gb microSD which you can fill it up with whatever you want, it is 3G and hence there is no need for a WiFi. The Sony Ericsson W950i which is not available for the US markets yet but will ship with a 4GB and has almost all the features that iPhone has with a smaller size and a smaller screen.
Steve jobs did mention that the device is running on OS X but no word on expandability or installing more than what it has and maybe some widgets. iPhone [Product page]
Size is the issue here for me.
Yeah sure its nice and thin, but look at the other dimensions? And comparisons seem to be with other large devices. What about something from HTC?
“it is 3G and hence there is no need for a WiFi”
Not so fast. Even ignoring the fact that even 802.11b is faster than 3G, the real problem is that 3G/EDGE/HSDPA is EXPENSIVE in most places compared to WiFi.
With WiFi, I can connect to my local area network at home or at the office and surf or even VoIP for free - you can’t do that over 3G unless you have a really great dataplan, which are rare.
Sorry, in general, I wouldn’t do networking on a smartphone without WiFi. I’m just not that rich (even if I can afford to own an iPhone or a Blackjack - although I prefer my HTC Wizard, thanks.